Barack Obama's war in Afghanistan: Crack Pipe, Peace Pipe... Same difference!

"It should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war." - Martin Luther King Jr.

So I woke up yesterday only to be greeted by one of my Black Republican buddies on Facebook by the question: So what are your thoughts on Obama's war? The question didn't throw me off as it is what I have come to expect from Conservatives. Obama's war? Wait a minute, didn't we invade Afghanistan a little over 8yrs ago? Shit, they way they've spun this, you would swear that there aren't any troops currently deployed to that God forsaken depleted part of the world. My buddy then went on to criticize Barack Obama as I expect all now rehabilitated warmongering neoconservatives and their legion of lemmings to do.

My man said Obama was a hypocrite because he was an anti-war candidate while he campaigned for the highest office in the land. I laughed at after I questioned myself as to whether there has ever been an anti-war candidate, or whether there was ever one to successfully become president. I had to check my buddy again and remind him that Barack Obama was against the Iraq war, didn't vote for the then "surge", but always stated that the focus should have been Afghanistan.

Of course he didn't believe me; it's just like conservatives and their selective amnesia. But anyway, my man went in on Obama and said that the war in Afghanistan was stupid, and his decision to escalate troops was foolish because people in Afghanistan were too primitive to be fighting and as a result as he said "We'll never win!." Of course I laughed again because this was the same guy all gung ho about the "War on Terror," and tracking down some boogieman hooked up to a dialysis machine as he sat in a cave sipping ice tea, and reading the latest Taliban Playboy magazine edition.

These conservatives are a trip and a half. It's obvious that Dick Cheney has something against his cousin Barack Obama. I dunno, maybe he didn't get much love at the last family reunion, and he's a little salty. This fool had the nerve to come out of the lair he shares with the Grinch who stole Christmas and suggest that Obama was taking too long to make a decision on Afghanistan. And when Barack finally made the move, Dick Cheney had the nerve to say that Obama was "weak". Yeah Obama is weak but it took him and George Bush took only 50 days to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan when they went in just after the events of 9/11.

You know, for a war criminal Cheney is a bold muthafucka!

Really Dickhead Cheney? Mission accomplished? Different country, but do you remember that shit? Lemme guess, all this time troops in Afghanistan have been dying from boredom as they made finger puppets, right? Yeah, all those American casualties were as a result of paper cuts and the fact that like America, there is no Universal Health-care in Afghanistan? Yep, and Obama is sending in 30,000 extra troops just in time for Christmas to drop off toys for little Muslim children who pray every-night to Jesus for a Zhu Zhu Pet.

Look, personally, I think Obama made a bad move with this, and I wish he would have decided on bringing those troops home rather than add to quagmire that it already is. Of course I know that he had always lobbied for Afghanistan. But I thought it was just a front while he campaigned because, well, you know how Negroes go out of the way "To show how hard dey is." Yeah, I thought he was just trying to gain support from all those John Wayne war movie loving folks who are clueless as to what war really looks like. But hey, his approval rating with the "white folks" is now at a paltry 39%, so I could see him doing what he's doing to, well, "Show dem how hard him is!"

I'm an anti-war kinda guy and yes I'm disappointed by his decision. Uh-huh, and as an Obama supporter myself, I'm not hearing anymore of that talk about what George W. Bush did in the past from him or any of you other Obama supporters - especially those of you of the Negro kind who are comfortable with the "Give the prez a chance, he has only been in office 2 weeks" bullshit line.

Guest Blogger: Would the Government f*ck Tiger Woods too? (by Folk)

So what's on Folk's fvcking mind after some time of rest and relax-fvcking-ation? Well like most of you, Folk trying not to be blinded by the fvcking governmental media conspiracy light. Back at the J. O. B., people asking about "What you think about Tiger this, Tiger that! Black ladies hating. Black dudes hollering 'that's what a motherfvcker get for fvcking with those WHITE girls'. Tiger, Tiger, Tiger!" Where you at Folk? What you got? How you feel about this son?

...[momentary silence]

Folk don't give a fvck! Folk don't fvcking care about the whole Tiger Woo sh!t and neither should any of you fvckers either. Who the fvck cares who Tiger fvcking. If it's one WHITE girl or twenty! Plus, what the fvck does it matters if his wife is WHITE? She's a fvcking person and if the allegations are true, then she's just as hurt as the next motherfvcker who's the mother of a man's seed. At least she's rich! Some of y'all agonizing over motherfvckers who ain't got no job. So fvck all y'all who spending time discussing, debating, demoralizing, or even fvcking jacking off on the images of the alleged "other woman."

And Folk ain't thinking about that White House dinner sh!t either. Y'all motherfvckers who screaming conspiracy should shut the fvck up! Fvck them broke azz fvckers who was trying to get their free dinner on.

Come on people! Stop being blinded by fvcking media diversionary tactics! What y'all should be concerned about is why is the media playing this sh!t up when over 10% of y'all fvckers are out of work. Over 20% of motherfvckers houses are upside down and the fvckers in congress are quietly performing a "reach around" on the American public called Health Care Reform. Yeah... Health care fvckers!

While the media has all us in a frenzy about "other" sh!t, the Senate is busy trying to figure out new ways to give the American public a "shell" of health care to basically place a "governmental tit in the mouth" of a crying American public. The government don't give a fvck about real health care reform, how y'all live what pitiful lives y'all have left, or how miserable you fvckers are while you live what life you have left while dribbling on the media bullsh!t shoved down our throats. The fvcking country is spiraling out of control. America... [read tax payers - that's you and me] have debt shoved up so far up our azzholes that foreclosure is tattooed on our foreheads.

Maurice Clemmons: Is it okay for "THEM" to speak on Black issues?

By Seattle Slim

In case you haven't been able to catch any news this week, the internet and the news outlets, especially here in the Seattle area, have been abuzz after the cruel execution of four police officers from the Lakewood Police Department on Sunday at a Forza coffee shop while they prepared for their day. The killer was a deranged, child rapist/molester, with one hell of a rap sheet, Maurice Clemmons.

Naturally, the perpetrator being black was a factor in some of the conversations in the aftermath. I guess some folks couldn't resist, considering just one month before, Ofcr. Tim Brenton was also executed by a biracial (black) man.

Some voiced yesterday and today that there was a "subculture" that was very much against cops, and we all know that "subculture" means black folks or ghetto black folks, one of the two (or even both).

On the Dori Munson show on KIRO FM, he kept mentioning this "subculture", because Clemmons had what seemed like an Army of dirtbag family members and friends who had been coddling and protecting his ass, when he should've answered for his actions. Matter of fact, the police hauled in quite a few of his accomplices and they aren't done yet.

People out here just can't understand how his family members and friends tended to his gunshot wounds, protected him, gave him money (they've bailed him out in the past for heinous crimes, including child rape), and helped him elude the police. Hell, I can't understand it. I'm more disgusted the more details I read.

Most of us in this black blogosphere have been railing against the kind of black folks that rape and destroy their communities, families and their surroundings for some time. You're not going to question my reasons unless you're ultra sensitive and projecting. You don't necessarily question Rippa or The Field Negro when they rip into animals like Clemmons on the regular.

Is it then okay for white bloggers and commentators to voice their opinions on the "Tragic Negroes" screwing things up for the rest of us (seriously, they were stopping black men trying to catch this perp)? Or will they never be privy to these types of discussions?

Where are the Black male teachers?

"Now, I say if you wanna kill yourself, don't fuck around with it. Go on and do it expeditiously!" - Joe Clark (Lean On Me)

We bitch about our current youth, and all but proclaim them to be the spawn of the devil when they're not our own - yes, there's a Black Jesus and a White Jesus, so quite naturally there's a Black devil and a White devil, no? Yeah I know; that's an entirely different topic, but I couldn't help but to go there. But anyway, while we are cynical in our criticisms, we're often quick to justify or attribute the behaviors of said children by the absence of male figures within the home or family structure.

Now considering that our kids spend a more significant portion of their time outside of our homes and in the charge of the public school system. Why is it that some genius among us has yet to question the number of male teachers within our public school system? Specifically, how the absence of black male teachers impact our youth negatively.

I'm not an expert, nor am I a teacher. But I can't help but to think that there is a direct correlation between the near absence of black male teachers and the difficulties that many African American boys face in school. About half of black male students do not complete high school in four years, statistics show. Black males also tend to score lower on standardized tests, take fewer Advanced Placement courses and are suspended and expelled at higher rates than other groups. The thought occurred to me after I watched the following video over at We Are Respectable Negroes:

Guest Blogger: In Praise of Precious... (by Invisible Woman)

(Editor's Note: RiPPa knows a few people; uh-huh, yes he does. That said, let's just say that he brought in a hired gun on this one. The following piece comes from one who is pretty much in the know of the film industry.)

I haven't blogged in a long time--it's not that I haven't wanted to, or had writers block, but somehow I couldn't seem to make the effort. Rippa challenged me to write my thoughts regarding the movie Precious, and the hoopla surrounding it, after reading my heartfelt tweets/anger about the sad folks that started a website to recruit people not to see the film. I mean WTF??

Listen people. I am what you would call the hugest Black Cinema enthusiast. I am completely involved in it every day, whether directly or indirectly via the internet. And for the life of me I cannot understand this backlash on Precious on any level--especially because the bulk of it seems to come from folks who've never even bothered to see it.

I have a blog on Black Cinema, entitled Black Cinema At Large...and on it we have discussed quite often and many times over the problem with Black film today. Most of the common complaints that I have read on my blog are actually addressed and handled beautifully in this film. Want some examples? Here we go:


All we ever get to represent us on screen is either a Tyler Perry film or a Black man in a dress.

This one is easy. Though Tyler Perry executive produced this film, there is absolutely no whiff whatsoever of any Perryism, and only real women play the women, and even 99% of them weren't wearing dresses.


1) Why can't we have a film starring Black people that is just a story? 2) Why do we always have film that puts our pain on screen?

The themes in Precious are universal. There are far, far too many people in the world that are suffering because of poverty and ignorance, not just us. Incest, poverty, and violence are real, in every culture, and happen every single day. Are they never to be addressed on film? This story could happen to anyone, and director Lee Daniels keeps the scenes involving the incest and violence to a minimum, if only just to show the challenges Precious had to break away from. The very focal point of the story is Precious' journey toward enlightenment from darkness. Would it have been easier to view if Precious was light, or was thin, or had long hair? Be honest when you answer that.


1) We are so tired of rappers and singers instead of Black Hollywood actors getting all of the roles in Black film. 2) We never get to see any up and comers given a chance, we see the same actors over and over.

Tiger Woods cheating? Beatdown by his wife? Car wreck? A "Safe Negro"...???!!!

It's been a so-so year for Black people; yes, there have been a lot of highs and lows. The first Black president was inaugurated just before spring; which pretty much set the tone for the entire year politically and otherwise. Then some months past that most uplifting and positive event, Michael Jackson dies this summer. And now here we are moving from fall into winter, about to close out the year, and Tiger Woods gets his ass beatdown by a white woman? His wife? For cheating?? I'm sorry, not that I know the guy, but he doesn't even look like he gets any ass or ever has! Yeah, he's one of those "safe negroes" so never in a million years you'd imagine a story like this, right? What's next, Bryant Gumbel on crack??

OK yeah, so it's a rumor that his wife "allegedly" beat his ass - I only said allegedly because I ain't trynna get sued; but truth is, we know she whooped the 1/4th black off his ass. Damn Tiger? How you gonna go out like that bruh? Yeah, I know how you Negroes do when you get rich. They forget where they come from, and the next thing you know is that they start creeping and cheating on their Caucasian wives with white girls. Uh-huh, Tiger lives next door to Wesley Snipes who is 175% black, and we all know how he gets down.

I can't help but to think that right now there's maybe a disgruntled sister from Tiger's past - maybe from the 6th grade - named Sharonda who back then called him Eldrick - um, that's his real name - as she pimped him for his ice cream money who is happy as hell because he got his ass beat by a white woman. She's probably talking shit about him just like the rest of the females in Black America; yep, I can hear them now.

Uh-huh, they dog Chris Brown out for puttin' speed knots on Rihanna's forehead, but laugh at Tiger for gettin' his cap peeled by a white girl. You know how that double standard thing works with Black folks. Oh you know the sisters are gonna talk shit about you when you get with a white girl or much less marry one. Which is funny as hell because if they had the chance to be the side chick, they would be right there with him - white wife and all.

Rumor has it - again, another attempt at me not trynna get sued - that "Cringer" has been having "relations" with some snow bunny named Rachel Uchitel. Yes, and this was "allegedly" the reason for his wife, Elin Nordegren  taking that nine iron upside his head and rearranging that ever popular winning smile of his. If your name is Gary Coleman, nobody cares that your Caucasian wife beats your ass because you're a broke midget with an attitude. But when you're Tiger Woods, any negative story about you will dominate the media cycle.

Car crash? Call it whatever sounds good, and less dramatic. But dude was trynna get the f*ck outta dodge behind the wheel of an automobile with a concession from where I'm sitting. This is Tiger Woods we're talking about here; I doubt he was leaving the house at 2am to catch that 2 for 1 dance special at the local strip club, or because he had a sudden craving for pancakes from IHOP.


SIDENOTE: Is it me, or when Tiger gets a white girl, this Negro gets them authentic, doesn't he? It's like he snatches them up fresh off the slave ships from Sweden! I could be wrong, but that's what I think. He gets the white girls that not even white dudes can get. Which would explain why the "white media" is intent on running this story into the ground.Yep, anything negative from a "safe negro" is just another one of those "see we told you," moments in history. Never-mind the fact that he's not a governor, or politician who left the country to have sex.


What's really messed up about this whole thing. Is that Tiger's wife has just given all white chicks in America some street cred. Because of her and her actions, white girls in interracial relationships all over the country will no longer take shit from these Negroes. Usually it's the other way around, ain't it? Oh c'mon, don't look at me funny - you know that's what the "brothers" say. Yep, they say white chicks are easier to control and that's why they get with them.

Yeah, that plus the whole "they give head and Black women don't," thing. Which is bullshit because I know plenty of Black women who are easy to control who don't give head. Yep, and maybe Tiger should have stuck with one of them instead of having everybody laughing at his ass right about now. I guess it's a good thing white women don't know how to cook grits. Or that my man Joey Greco from Cheaters wasn't around

Let's hope his Black side doesn't get blamed for his cheating ways.

STORY HERE

Guest Blogger: When allies fail (by Tami of "What Tami Said")

(Editor's Note: I've been involved in some pretty heated debates lately centered around the feminist/womanist movement and race matters. At the end of the day, nothing was learned, and in my opinion, the discourse or exchanges did very little to dispel a few well known negative stereotypes of the parties involved. So, since I'm all about education unlike some blogs, I'm sharing a piece from Tami, of the blog What Tami Said. Take a few minutes to visit her blog and do yourself a favor of adding it to your blogroll as I have.)

Last week, in a post titled When Allies Fail - Part 1, we began a discussion about maintaining alliances in the face of failure.

What does it mean to be allied? The dictionary definition is to be joined in a group to advance common interests or causes. And what does this joining require? I think mutual respect, shared activism and adherence to mutual goals and objectives. Alliances are by nature two-sided affairs. Both sides bear the responsibility of maintaining the relationship. And this isn't easy. I have witnessed too many battles between members of marginalized groups and their professed allies to think otherwise. The disagreements are often raw, emotional and ultimately unsatisfying. Sometimes, I think we expect too much of our allies. Sometimes the privileged are too confident in their roles as allies and too slow to examine their own biases. As enlightened about race or gender a person may be, we are all products of a racist and sexist society. To expect any person, no matter how good-intentioned, to never reveal a racial or gender bias is to invite disappointment. If members of marginalized groups want to work with allies, we have to know that they will fail us sometimes. Our allies have to know that they will fail.

In that post, I tackled the responsibilities of anti-racist and feminist allies. What should an ally do when he or she has made an unwitting show of prejudice or privilege? Today, I want to talk about the responsibilities of marginalized people who want to work with allies. 'Responsibilities of marginalized people'...already I am hesitant to speak about allied relationships this way.

First, marginalized people are the owners of the anti-racist and feminist/womanist movements. The outcomes of the movement are about our humanity, our treatment, our futures, our children. Our fight is based not on empathy, but lived reality. Yes, racism and sexism ultimately effect everyone, no matter their race or gender. But, for instance, women involved in the feminist movement feel the urgency for change much more strongly than our male allies. We are more invested, I think. I say this not as a slight against men. It is the rare human being who is not most invested in things that effect them directly.

Second, marginalized people, like POC, have historically been oppressed. As a result, we adapt to living in a society that does not treat us as equals and sees us as 'other.' We try to conform. We code switch. We hide our culture. We change our physicality to match that of the majority culture. We hold our tongues in the face of the everyday dull aches of racism. We do this every day, both consciously and unconsciously.

It does not seem right, then, that historically oppressed people, while working within our own safe spaces in movements for our own liberation, have some responsibility to the feelings of privileged people--the historic oppressors--even those who call themselves allies. Haven't we earned a permanent high ground through centuries of mistreatment? Surely we don't have to make gentle our words, hide our anger, wear the mask (TM Paul Laurence Dunbar) even while fighting for our own equality. Do feminists have a responsibility for maintaining relationships with men? Do anti-racist people of color have a responsibility for maintaining relationships for white people?

If we want them as allies...yes.

We have a responsibility to treat our allies with respect and humanity. It is the same responsibility that every person has to another. This notion of human regard is the very foundation of equality movements. We cannot demand justice while mirroring injustice. We definitely should not feel a need to 'wear the mask' in our own safe spaces in order to make privileged people more comfortable. But we can act with compassion. When we do not, we fail at maintaining alliances. And allied relationships are too important to lose.

Allies are important to any equality movement. It does not help people of color if we are the only ones who understand racism and how it still exists in society. It does not help women if we are the only ones that believe we deserve equal treatment. This is especially true considering the ways that women and people of color have been kept from places of power. The battles are ours to fight, and we can win them, but we need allies.

So how should marginalized people navigate allied relationships?

Guest Blogger: Invisible Lives of Caribbean Nannies (by EcoSoul)

(Editor's Note: With it being Thanksgiving, and given that everyone is in a thankful and reflective mood. I wanted to share a post from one of the blogs I frequent: Organic.Intellectual. This post had me particularly thinking of all the Caribbean female relatives in my life who came before me; and, the women who are responsible for the very  the fabric of my soul today. Have a Happy Thanksgiving folks.)

On any given Sunday in Central Park, upscale Washington D.C. parks, or in the parking lots of frou-frou stores in Livingston, NJ you become aware that many upper class white women do not raise their children.

Often times, it is a Caribbean woman who must take care of other peoples' children six or seven days out of the week, while leaving her children behind or at home to be cared for by extended family.

Caribbean nannies are invisible women that have replaced African-American domestics. There are of course Latinas, especially from Mexico and Central America, but it seems to be something about a black nanny that soothes childhood memories of the rich, white soul.

These diligent women cannot be forgotten. It was one from Guyana who blessed me one day when I was on the train job-hunting in West Orange. She sat next to me and we began to talk about our lives. She told me that she worked 5-6 days a week in West Orange. Usually, she went home to Queens on Friday evenings or Saturday mornings. She told me she did this to put her children through school.

When I told her I was in school for my PhD, she beamed in pride and began to whisper, 'You know it is hard for us.' She rubbed the skin on the back of her hand signaling her blackness and mine as well. I smiled and said, 'Yes ma'am, you are right. It is very hard.'

She asked me where I was going. I told her I was reluctantly going back to Newark. I was trying to follow-up on a job and spent my last money taking the train to trek down a professor at a conference. You see I really wanted to go to this conference at CUNY on Blackness (this was a year or so ago), but did not have the money.

Without thinking, she pulled out a $20 bill and told me to go to New York and keep the change. She gave me blessings and said if we never saw each other again, she prayed to the Lord that I finished. Now that was some deep love I need and wasn't expecting on a cold Northeastern day.

To me, this is one of the reasons why I persevere on the hardest days, because this doctoral thing is not just for me, but for the people's whose shoulders I stand.

When we got off of the train, I saw her gait had a little limp. Maybe arthritis, maybe years of picking up other peoples' kids and tending to the them when her back and hip did not permit.

I can never forget the Guyanese woman who helped me that day. It was on a Friday and she was coming from work and had given me some of her work money she just got from her 'employer' who paid her in cash and under the table. That woman and all the women who clean stinky booties, scrub nasty floors, and go grocery shopping for people who pay them pennies, but have millions stashed, are the invisible we really need to see.

I thought of both of my grandmothers who were domestics in the South and the reality of the past hit me in the face. Where you had extended families of the South often rearing the children of family members, these Caribbean women may have limited support systems, or newly inducted kinship ties to make it through.

Rarely anyone addresses the high numbers of black Caribbean women tending to wealthy women's babies. A juxtaposed irony, one privileged white woman and one working-class black immigrant woman. One who exploits, but is ever so dependent on the emotional and physical labor of the very person that is exploited.

Especially in the celebrity world where women fashionably have technologically implanted embryos, show off baby bumps to paparazzi, only to dump them onto nannies who silently rear the children as if they are their own mammy.

Or you have the other scenario of the celebs who adopt babies from brown and black countries as if they are socially conscious accessories. They show these children off in public with hair sticking up all over the place. Then they have Little Azziz smile for the camera on the way to Kabbalah class without a clue that they are being pimped.

'Precious': Racial Stereotypes & The Petite Bourgeoisie of the Negro Mind

So here I am, somewhere at the intersection of Billie Holiday's "God Bless The Child" and Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come". I'm not confused or lost in applesauce as is the expression, because maybe I'm something like "Black Caesar"  or that old James Brown classic "A Blind Man Can See It". Quite frankly, I'm a bit disappointed, and disturbed by the negative backlash the movie "Precious" is receiving from and within the so-called Black community.

I hate to be cynical about this, but I have to ask: will Black people ever be happy? We have people who are bothered by this movie who see it as just another one in a long line of stereotypically negative images of Black people (or more specifically Black women) in the mainstream. Then there are people like me who totally see this movie for what it is: a necessary film that promotes and draws attention to various pathologies that are often overlooked and rarely discussed within our so-called Black community. Hello, Shaniya Davis anyone?

"Not since The Birth of a Nation has a mainstream movie demeaned the idea of black American life as much as Precious. Full of brazenly racist clichés (Precious steals and eats an entire bucket of fried chicken), it is a sociological horror show." - Armond White (Source: nypress.com)

What gets me, is that people are caught up in the idea that maybe this movie is representative of all people of color in America - a rather foolish line of thinking in my book when you consider that we're not a monolithic people. However, rich or poor, upper or middle class, the central themes of this movie knows no discrimination, and is not exclusive to any family of a certain socio-economic class. Yet and still, some of us are hell bent on promoting the idea that this is all fantasy which has the effect of making us look bad. I'm sorry, but I don't quite get you "image-conscious" individuals, and I'm going to need some help with that.

Yes I know we don't all have the same story, and yes I know there are many different narratives of the Black experience in America. But isn't the "Black experience" and our various stories riddled with conflict and pathologies (some of which we don't even realize) that may be detrimental to our survival? I'm sorry, but when a film is put together and produced by two of the most powerful Black people in the entertainment industry (Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry), it's hard for me to overlook the films message and focus on the "Blaxploitation" meme. Who better is there to bring to life a narrative such as this than a person of color?

"Winfrey, Perry and Daniels make an unholy triumvirate.They come together at some intersection of race exploitation and opportunism. These two media titans—plus one shrewd pathology pimp—use Precious to rework Booker T. Washington’s early 20th-century manifesto Up From Slavery into extreme drama for the new millennium: Up From Incest, Child Abuse,Teenage Pregnancy, Poverty and AIDS. Regardless of its narrative details about class and gender, Precious is an orgy of prurience." - Armond White (Source: nypress.com)

That said, should people of color with power and influence in the industry, ignore any attempts to bring to life subject matter that's considered taboo to the Black petite bourgeoisie, and the Black community at large? Come to think of it, maybe that's why there aren't as many "quality" Black movies of substance being produced, no? Precious is a movie produced by people of color that has already created an Oscar buzz, but yet Negroes are mad because it's not exactly Terms Of Endearment or Guess Who's Coming To Dinner material? Which is funny because when a white person makes a movie like Hotel Rwanda, Black folks never have anything negative to say, or even support it for that matter.

Well RiPPa we need to see more Black movies with more than one narrative! True, we do; but let's not act like they haven't been produced. It's disingenuous to give the impression that everything coming out of Hollywood for and about Black people by Black people are just bastardly negative. But then maybe therein lies the problem - that would be, the thought that each of these movies reflect us and our individual and personal story.

One thing that should not be ignored, is just how hard it is for a person of color to break into the Hollywood movie making industry; an industry dominated by people who pretty much determine American culture. What's funny about that, is while we as Black people remain image conscious, the power elite steals our culture and promotes it.  

Where are the "image conscious" Black folks among us when little white sub-urban kids run around looking and acting as if they too had the privilege of growing up in the ghettos we despise and sweep under the rug?


Listen, "Precious" is no more representative of the Negro collective anymore than "Nino Brown" is - they are both representative of a reality that exists among us, and we should never feel shameful about these movies or these characterizations. Ironically, it is this very shame which may become a major factor in this being Gabourey Sidibe's only leading role in a movie while we bitch about all the light skin people who somehow dominate the media market. So yeah, you guys can continue to beat that tired drum and stay with the whole shooting the messenger, and missing the message thing. You're gonna need it when there are no more Black production companies in Hollywood especially when somebody like Steven Spielberg decides to do Boyz In The Hood II.

Has anyone seen John Singleton lately?

Seewhumsayin?

How Much Longer Will We Tolerate Savage Homophobia In Our Community?

By Seattle Slim

Look, let me premise this by saying that I don't agree with homosexuality. Yes, I said it. And I don't care if anyone agrees with me or not on that. It is just a sexual preference, and I think people, straight and gay, put way too much stock into who people ultimately choose to screw.

Because of that, I am patently against homophobia and the attack on this poor child, 9th grader Jayron Martin, is nothing short of savage. He was threatened with an ass kicking by some bully punks for being gay. He went to his school leadership for help and they turned their backs on him (Click here for more info).

While I may not agree with homosexuality, they are fellow human beings. I'm a Christian and I know full and damned well that we are supposed to treat others the way we want to be treated. I also know that the Bible clearly states that God loves us all, even the people we as humans don't believe are worthy of His love. Thank God it's not up to us, and it's up to Him.

I sure as hell wouldn't want to be beaten for being straight, or being in an interracial relationship with a white guy. Even though I don't agree, I don't think, nay, I know it's wrong as hell to attack people for their sexual preferences, specifically for being homosexual. That's not alright.

Just this April, Carl Joseph Walker committed suicide because kids taunted him by calling him gay. No one even knows if he was gay or not, he was just different, and that was enough to start the gay taunts. Sadly, he was not the first suicide, nor the last, due to sickening homophobia.

Young black boys have this screwed up idea of masculinity because the fathers aren't in the home, or the fathers don't give a shit. That's bad in and of itself, and harmful to them, but if you add homophobia, you've got a toxic cocktail of disdain and hatred.